Lights, Camera…Business?

A recent GMAC article describes an innovative program at NYU that, as the article puts it, bridges the gap between “the ‘creatives’ and the ‘suits.'”

New York University’s joint MBA/MFA degree program, a partnership between the Stern School of Business and the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television (part of the Tisch School of the Arts) which was launched in 2008, is designed for aspiring film producers, future professionals who will benefit from a deep understanding of both the world of TV and film and the business world. During the three-year program students pursue a full MFA curriculum in filmmaking alongside an MBA.

According to C. Samuel Craig, a Stern professor and director of Stern’s Entertainment Media and Technology Program, “[Applicants] have to have all the analytical skills necessary to succeed in an MBA program, but they also have to demonstrate the same level of creativity of someone who wants to be a film director.”

The program’s first cohort will be graduating this spring. Up until now there have been only four to six students in a given year; there are plans to increase that number to eight or ten.